Free Republic

Military analyst Denys Popovych said on Radio NV that Russian troops are currently encircled near Kupyansk and explained how Ukrainian forces carried out a successful operation there on Dec. 13. There are now encircled Russian army units in the city that are clearly in the final stage of their presence there. Cleanup operations are ongoing, and it is impossible to predict when they will end. Why do the Russians make such statements about capturing Kupyansk? They are taking territory on credit. They need it to demonstrate that they are advancing and achieving success. They lost Kupyansk during our Kharkiv counteroffensive,...

Yesterday, an incident occurred in one of Russia’s bomber aviation regiments involving an aircraft that was parked inside a shelter. According to the Russian propagandist Fighterbomber, the ejection system accidentally activated on board. As a result, both the pilot and the navigator were killed, suffering fatal injuries. The incident likely involved either a Su-34 fighter-bomber or a Su-24 frontline bomber. Such cases occur due to improper maintenance of the ejection system or accidental activation.

On Sunday, December 7, US lawmakers unveiled the final text of the defense policy bill, which includes record funding for national security as well as aid for Ukraine, according to Reuters, Fox News, and AOL.Media reports state that the bill allocates $901 billion for military spending for fiscal year 2026-$8 billion more than what President Donald Trump requested in May of this year.The legislation also assists Ukraine.“The legislation reauthorizes the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative at $400 million per year for fiscal years 2026 and 2027,” Fox News reports.Additionally, the US Congress will require more frequent reporting on allied contributions to...

LONDON -- No compromise has been reached on the question of territorial control to reach a peace settlement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following his meeting with European leaders on Monday. "The Americans think we must look for compromises. There are difficult questions about territories. In this regard, there is no compromise for now," Zelenskyy told reporters on a plane after the meeting in London

Luxury mansions, duffel bags stacked full of cash, and a golden toilet. These are just some of the excesses that members of Volodymyr Zelensky's inner circle enjoyed as Russian missiles rained down on civilians, according to Ukraine's top anticorruption agencies. The scandal had old-school elements: its co-conspirators are accused of employing code names for each other such as 'Professor', 'Sugarman', 'Karlson', and 'Rocket' as they lined their pockets amid Moscow's years-long invasion. The corruption crisis sweeping Zelensky's government could not have occurred at a more pivotal moment in the country's history, as it thrashes out a peace proposal that will...

When Ukraine set its sights on NATO and later the European Union, many expected Europe to respond with conviction and purpose. Instead, what emerged was a patchwork of shortterm fixes, hesitant commitments, and political squabbles—a portrait of a continent reacting to history rather than shaping it. Europe entered the conflict improvising, not strategizing. What was framed as solidarity has too often become a cascade of costly, shortsighted decisions that drain wealth, fracture unity, and expose the EU’s lack of direction. Today, the European Union wrestles with economic fatigue and political discord. Member states remain divided over how long support for...

Coming in the other direction, the soldiers looked exactly like the Ukrainian unit walking out of Pokrovsk after a 15-day deployment.They wore the same blue armbands and carried the same equipment. One of the four men said “hello”.But minutes later, a warning came over the radio: “Be careful, there is a group of Russian infiltrators in your area.”“We passed right by them,” says Ivan, a 21-year-old machine gunner in an unmanned systems unit from the Da Vinci Wolves. “The men I saw matched the description exactly.”Inside Pokrovsk, the dividing lines of urban warfare have faded. In their place is a...

Hostility toward the US president is somewhat lower in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and PortugalPARIS, December 4. /TASS/. Almost one in two EU citizens surveyed perceive US President Donald Trump as "Europe’s enemy," according to the results of a poll of 9,500 residents in nine EU countries conducted in late November and published in the French magazine Le Grand Continent. "According to the latest figures, Trump is largely perceived as Europe’s enemy. On average, 48% of EU citizens surveyed see him this way, while 10% consider him a friend [of Europe] and 40% view him as ‘neither friend nor foe,’"...

"The US delegation just met with Vladimir Putin and his staff in Moscow and although there is no peace agreement yet, we seem to be one step closer to some form of “compromise” as the Russian TASS news agency puts it."

hen Vladimir Putin declared this week that Russia was ‘ready’ to fight a war in Europe, the remark barely seems to have rippled the surface of Britain’s political consciousness. It should have sent a shockwave...Yet Britain continues to behave as though danger is tidily scheduled for years in the future, safely beyond the horizon of any present responsibility. It is a comforting delusion, but a very dangerous one. Britain cannot lead Europe if it cannot defend itselfWhat Putin understands – and what Britain refuses to face – is that Europe is vulnerable in ways that matter more than tanks or...

"You know, when I was in this office and I talked about no cards. I said: 'you have no cards.' That was the time to settle. I thought that would've been a much better time to settle. But they, in their wisdom, decided not to do that. They have a lot of things against them right now."

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin accepted some U.S. proposals aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and rejected others but that Russia was ready to meet U.S. negotiators as many times as it took to reach an agreement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was speaking after talks in Moscow between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner went into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with a Kremlin aide saying afterwards that "compromises have not yet been found." Asked if it would be correct to say that Putin had rejected...

Russia launched its biggest attack of the war overnight against natural gas facilities run by Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz Group, officials said Friday. Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force. in what officials was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter and wear down public appetite for the 3-year-old conflict. “This is deliberate terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing for the normal life of people,” Serhii Koretskyi, chief executive of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz, said in a statement. “It has no military...

I simply don't trust the MSM to tell us what Putin actually said (shades of Russia!Russia!Russia!). Below is the link to the video and the YOUTUBE auto-generated TRANSCRIPT. The video and TRANSCRIPT are long; if you want to skip to the comments, I recomment you return to the forum and click on the comments link there.[H/T Delta7]WATCH: Putin Full Speech at Valdai Forum in Sochi | Gaza, Ukraine & EU Relations | AC15DWS News88.6K subscribersOct 2, 2025 ransomnote: The transcript is an computerized interpretation of the spoken word. The translator in the video speaks with an accent so there are...

For years now, Russia has been desperately attempting to convince the world — and, indeed, itself — that it is a great power. But photo opportunities at summits, nuclear saber-rattling, boasts about BRICS and military adventurism abroad are less signs of true power than the tactics of a weak actor attempting to mask weakness — to divert attention from a crumbling empire. Behind the façade of a belligerent great power lurks a hollowing-out state, edging toward the exit of the great powers’ clubhouse. Once indisputable — in fact, during the Cold War, one of only two superpowers — Russia today...

It is not hyperbole to think the Moldovan election today may possibly determine whether a NATO war with Russia takes place, or whether the NATO desire for conflict slowly begins to dissolve. {GO DEEP} The small country squeezed between Romania (the largest NATO super-base constructed) and Ukraine, is located in a critical area. Whether Moldova joins the EU, or whether Moldova remains independently free from Brussels influence, is part of the outcome. The Moldova Parliamentary Elections are today.The EU/NATO are at a zero-sum inflection point. THIS is the tinderbox.There are roughly 2.5 million registered Moldovan voters living in Moldova. However,...

Putin Prepares A New Proposal For Ukraine🕊️The Frontline Situation Is Catastrophic💥MS For 2025.09.27

“Dare to Ukraine” is The Kyiv Independent’s wartime travel series that shows the country beyond the war headlines. In Episode 4 of “Dare to Ukraine: Village,” Masha’s quiet rural routine is interrupted by a new mission: uncover the local history and debunk Russian propaganda myths about Ukraine. What starts as a simple day in the countryside turns into a journey through Ukraine’s past and present — proving that even the smallest villages and communities carry stories of independence that shatter Russian lies."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his "productive meeting" with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, after which Trump appeared to jettison his long-held skepticism of Kyiv's battlefield ambitions. Shortly after the meeting, Trump wrote on social media, "After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form." (snip) But on Tuesday, the...

President Trump’s dramatic pronouncement Tuesday that Russia is a “paper tiger” is based on new US intelligence that shows the Kremlin is spiraling toward economic ruin and battlefield defeat as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump’s insistence in the same statement that Ukraine can regain all the land currently occupied by Russia is the president’s latest “strategic move” to try and bring Russia to the negotiating table, sources inside and outside the White House told The Post Wednesday. -snip- “The president is making it very clear that Russia is in a very weak position,” White House press...